Shifting the focus to the soft
skills of teachers:
Developing a research question
Shifting the focus to the soft
skills of teachers
•
Background
•
Skills of excellent teachers
•
Soft skills
•
Conclusion
Where did it all start? (1)
•
From my position
•
A passion for teaching
•
A teacher
•
Training teachers
•
My own studies / research
Where did it all start? (2)
•
Newspaper headlines
•
National and International Reports on the position
of teachers
(HSRC&MRC,2005:5, VSO 2002:2, Crouch & Perry 2003:12)
Outcomes
•
Giving you a sense of what I have come across
•
Focusing on the role of the teacher in education
Motivation
“…the quality of an educational
system cannot exceed
the quality of its teachers.”
(Malm 2009:78)
Shifting the focus to the soft
skills of teachers
•
Background
•
Skills of excellent teachers
•
Soft skills
•
Conclusion
Skills of Excellent teachers
• Collison (1999:4) states that “knowledge
and theories to explain the complex
nature of teacher excellence remain
limited”
Skills of Excellent teachers
• professional skills (didactic,
content etc.)
• interpersonal skills
• intrapersonal skills
the last two refer to the non-technical
knowledge, defined in this study as
“soft skills”.
(Collison 1999:4)
Skills of Excellent teachers
•
Vastly different skills are necessary
• The Norms and Standards for Educators in
South Africa (1998:53) identify 7 Roles of the
teacher
• leader, administrator and manager
• scholar, researcher and lifelong learner
• have community, citizenship and pastoral role
Skills of Excellent teachers
Sigmund Freud once remarked, ‘it is hard to
decide whether what affects us more and was
of greater importance to us (as teenagers) was
our concern with the sciences that we were
taught or with the personalities of our teachers
(Jarvis 2005:10)
Shifting the focus to the soft
skills of teachers
•
Background
•
Skills of excellent teachers
•
Soft skills
•
Conclusion
Defining “Soft skills”
• Not defined in a concise way (Crosbie 2005:38)
• Difficult to measure
(Muir 2004:6)
• Hard to quantify and have a long term effect (Ramsoomair 2004:231)
• They do exist like “golden threads” (Kruger et al. 2006:12)
Defining “Soft skills” (1)
“…attitudes and behaviours displayed in interactions
among individuals that might affect the outcomes of
such encounters”
(Muir 2004:96)
Defining Soft skills (2)
“doing the right thing at the right time, and
doing it nicely”
(Joubert et al.2006)
Types of Soft skills
•
Interpersonal
•
Intrapersonal
•
Ethics
(Van Staden et al. 2006;34,Polk 2006:23, Fernandez-Sanz et al.
2010:2680)
Where do we find research on the
“soft skills”?
•
Business
•
Medical Field (Van Staden et al. 2006:34)
•
Computer field (Fernandez-Sanz et al.
(Muir 2004:96)
2010:2680-2684)
Types of Soft skills (1)
Interpersonal
• Communication reception skills
• Communication sending skills
• Teamwork
• Ability to motivate
Types of Soft skills (2)
Intrapersonal
• Responsibility
• Self confidence
• Flexibility
• Initiative
• Planning ability
• Innovation / Creativity
• Reflective competencies /Critical thinking
• Self development / Lifelong learning
Types of Soft skills (3)
Ethics
•
•
Awareness of ethics
Professionalism
Training: Soft skills
Crosbie (2005:47) reasons that these can be acquired
and grown, but for these to become “skills” they need
to be practised continually.
Shifting the focus to the soft
skills of teachers
•
Background
•
Skills of excellent teachers
•
Soft skills
•
Conclusion
Implications (1)
•
Malm (2009:77) asks “how well do we understand
and cater for the development of the whole person
when we design and implement teacher training
programmes?”
Conclusion
•
My research question:
Which soft skills are important for a
teacher in the current South African
educational context?